Are you ready for 2013 Major No. 2? The big daddy of them all? I truly can’t wait for this one to start, because I feel like we all sorta got cheated at the Masters. I mean — lost in the hubbub of the Tiger Drop Crisis was the fact that the dude was just about ready to take the lead and start stomping everyone.

And then the ball hit the pole. And went into the drink. And then the wheels came off.

As play starts today outside Philadelphia at the quirky old Merion East course (Anyone else think the logo featuring the pole-baskets looks like a freaking bloody Q-tip?) all eyes rightfully will be on Tiger Woods, and his quest for Major No. 15. Nobody else really matters right now, and nobody this year is truly playing at his level. But one thing is for sure, the “new” Tiger isn’t anything like the old — over the last year or so he has shown a tendancy to choke on the weekends at majors, something he never did before. And the rest of the guys playing? They’ve gotten better.

What does that mean for Tiger? It means his margin of error is much slimmer than it was when he was the only guy on the tour who looked like an athlete. Now there’s lots of them. He used to be by far the farthest hitter, now he’s about top average. There are new foreign foes like Graeme McDowell, who aren’t going to be intimidated by Tiger the way the U.S. Tour guys used to be. With its tight layout and wet conditions Merion is probably going to be a birdie fest, so no more rope-a-dope par fests like last year at Olympic. There’s going to be room to make shots here, so let’s get it on. Having just watched the Blackhawks beat the Bruins in triple overtime in the Stanley Cup opener, I’m ready for more drama and lore. Don’t let us down, Tiger. Or whoever wants to keep Tiger’s majorless streak going.

ESPN has your live TV Thursday and Friday, our suggestion is mute when Berman starts talking, unmute when Van Pelt has the mike. NBC gets the weekend, with lots of online viewing available at USOpen.com or via the U.S. Open app, which beats pants off the PGA Tour app (which still doesn’t really work on all Android phones). WatchESPN and ESPNRadio also available online.

NEW! PGA TOUR RADIO!
This a better deal for those not living in the U.S., because it’s free internationally. Inside the U.S. you will pay (due to rights fees) $1.99 per event or $9.99 for the whole year. Gives you the CBS feed, audio version. Click here for more info and payment plans for your area.

The U.S. Open Twitter feed.Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend. Now leading the Wei (hah!) with Google+ Hangouts during most tourneys.Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.Matt Ginella is a former Golf Digest writer now at Golf Channel. Your guide to the best golf course reviews, evar. Plus great columnist-type commentary on a regular basis.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
If you haven’t heard about good old Merion and the baskets on the flagpoles you’ve been under a rock the past week. Here’s a great lengthy takeout on Merion’s East Course from the folks at SBNation.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
The Birdman! Excuse me, it was Webb Simpson, with an assist from Jim Furyk.

Let’s get the basics out of the way first. You want to know when to watch the Masters, right? It’s easy. TV coverage Thursday and Friday is on ESPN, 3 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Eastern time, both days. On the weekend it’s CBS, 3 to 7 p.m. Saturday, 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday.

Online: You can’t go wrong. We have already said we think the Masters coverage is not just the best in golf, but the best online coverage of any event, anywhere. We have CBS and IBM and AT&T to thank, but mostly it’s because the Masters calls its own shots. So they’re not concerned whether or not online will take away from TV ratings. Like the Honey Badger, the Masters doesn’t give a you know what.

CBSSports and the Masters sites will both show live video, and you can even watch the ESPN coverage simulcast on WatchESPN. Here are some handy links:

If all else fails, go to the Masters.com page, find the mobile device apps for iPad, iPhone or Android and download. You know the drill. Be thankful that the Masters is the best, bar none, sports event for sports fan viewing. We are talking minimum commercials, multiple alternate views online, experienced crews who aren’t doing this for the first time… there is the occasional weirdness like the Butler Cabin stuff but unless this is your first time watching you have already embraced all that as part of the Masters lore and lure. So on to the actual tournament preview:

It’s Tiger’s to lose.

If you look at it from a purely unemotional standpoint — so far this season Woods has been destroying the fields on courses he knows well. Torrey Pines. Bay Hill. Augusta is another one of those multiple-win places, where he announced his plans to not just win but to posterize the rest of the Tour, back in 1997. If you watched that tournament, like millions of us did, it changed you as a golf fan.

Even as Woods struggled the past few years, he was surprisingly competitive at Augusta: Since his last green jacket in 2005, here is how Tiger has finished: 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, 6th, 4th, 4th, and then 40th last year. Those results are a career for most of the stiffs on Tour; so now that Tiger is back in form (especially on the greens) how can he not win?

In terms of work ethic, physicality, smarts — he has the whole package, something nobody else has. What is missing… is the mojo.

Majors are all about psychological pressure. What Woods showed last year is that he is susceptible to it. He didn’t use to, but now — he cracks. He’s the closer who can’t close anymore, Mariano Rivera without the cut fastball. He fooled us all, even the best: Sports Illustrated’s Alan Shipnuck, best golf beat writer out there, wrote this after the first round of the U.S. Open and probably still regrets it.

What Shipnuck thought — what we all thought — is that the Tiger of old had returned. On Thursday it looked like Woods had it wired again, like he was the GOAT. Then on Saturday he looked like a club member, complete with the hospital shoes. Timid. Afraid. The same thing happened at the British Open — on Sunday there was Woods trying to play smart golf while Ernie Els smoothed his way to the kind of major Tiger used to clear off the table. And then at the PGA the whole golf world ran into the Rory McIlroy buzzsaw, which is awesome to see whenever it flits into focus.

Rory, Phil, or some unknown ready to rise up like Bubba Watson or Charl Schwartzel… there are a hell of a lot of good golfers on Tour now, with what looks like a much higher level of overall play than when Tiger broke in back in the ’90s. And the hype on golf has ramped up too, making all the tournaments that aren’t majors a beta release.

Golf fans and even casual sports fans get it — the Masters is one of the times of the year we need to pay attention, and we will. Majors are about history. Lore. They are player-defining moments. For many of us, there is no doubt that Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer to ever play the game. But until he gets past Jack Nicklaus’ 18 major wins, Tiger knows he can’t legitimately make that claim himself. Nicklaus, as great a student of the game as any, publicly says Tiger can beat his total. Then he adds: But he’s got to go out and win them.

And that’s what a lot of golf fans want to see. They want to witness the greatest, at the top of his game. I think that second chapter starts this weekend — I can see Woods blowing everyone away, just like in 1997. The intimidation factor is creeping back in, and if he gets 4-5 strokes clear by the weekend Shipnuck can go back to his early close-out predictions. But I could also see it going the way of Jim Harbaugh play-calling at the goal line in the Super Bowl… Tiger pressing too hard, staying close but never getting in a groove, and someone who doesn’t feel pressure, like… Jason Dufner? … emerging from the pack.

Masters.com
There will be a live streaming radio report on the Masters.com site.

ONLINE
Full live video coverage at Masters.com and CBSSports.com. Different cameras start at different times each day, so… check the schedule to see when they go live. Right now tentative start times for Thursday are: Amen Corner camera, 10:45 a.m.; Holes 15 & 16, 11:45 a.m.; Featured Groups 1 & 2, 12:00 p.m.

ESPN: The Worldwide Leader will be at the Masters in force, with its live coverage Thursday and Friday, and more online coverage goodies. Here is ESPN’s Championship Central link. This is also a good place to check for live ESPN online coverage, via ESPN3 or the WatchESPN app for mobile devices.

Golf.com is going Masters overboard, with more content than you could possibly read. But the Sports Illustrated group of writers hanging out there may be the best covering the game right now.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOWDan Jenkins — golf’s Shakespeare. From Texas. Hope he is on form for the Masters. If you don’t know who he is, hit Google. And buy a few books.Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer is slinging Masters lore and great links.Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend

LOCAL FLAVOR
The Augusta Chronicle knows how to play the biggest event of the year. A good bookmark.

WHAT’S THE COURSE LIKE?
Here’s an incredible service: The Masters course page has video flyovers of each hole. I think I will only spend about 80 hours on this page alone.

Want to check out the historic clubhouse? Sports Illustrated’s Golf.com has a video that takes you inside.

WHO WON THIS THING LAST YEAR?
The man who hates publicity who has been so overexposed I would bet that just about every Golf Digest reader could go out to the pines at #11 and replay Bubba’s hook shot to win it. Well maybe not. But Bubba Watson sure did know how to win his first major. Props.

Are you ready for the third major of the year? It all kicks off Thursday morning at one of the stranger-named courses, Royal Lytham & St. Annes (not St. Anne’s), which its own website describes as “It is not a conventionally beautiful golf course, surrounded as it is by suburban housing and flanked by a railway line, but it has a charm all of its own.” Never you mind. This is the British Open, aka The Open Championship, and it’s all about history. With Champions at the course named Seve. Tom Lehman, Gary Player, and most recently, David Duval in 2001.

And best of all, golf when you wake up in the morning here in the U.S.! If you want to watch the Open Championship this weekend you best have a cable subscription with ESPN (and really, who doesn’t in the sports world). If you want to watch online or on your mobile device, you need a cable sub with the WatchESPN qualifying carriers: Verizon FiOS, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks or Comcast. This tourney is four days of wall to wall ESPN coverage, including ESPN radio, probably a bunch of SportsCenter from the Open broadcasts… starting at 4:30 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday, to catch all of Tiger and Phil, who are going out early.

And who will win it? Odds on favorite is, of course, the man who would be back: Tiger Woods. If he plays all four days like he played the first two days at Olympic, Tiger will be tough to beat — he’s even been seen working on his infamous “stinger” shots. Lurking in the gorse is Phil Mickelson, who is way overdue overseas — and had himself a few nice sub-70 rounds at the Scottish Open last weekend as a tuneup.

What about the local lads — guys like Lee Westwood and Luke Donald, who reign atop the world standings but have zero majors between them? Of the two I like Westwood’s chances since he always seems to be in it at the end, while Donald tends to disappear. Maybe like Darren Clarke last year, this is Westwood’s time. As a dark horse I like a guy who I saw live for the first time at the U.S. Open, and marveled at the style of his swing: Former British Open champ Louis Oosthuizen. Go join the MSR group on the ESPN fantasy golf game if you want to show your own picking savvy.

In case the Open isn’t enough golf, there is also a PGA Tour event this week, the incredibly ignored True South Classic in Madison, Mississippi, as well as the fun-to-watch American Century Classic from Lake Tahoe, where celebs and athletes from other sports show off their golf prowess, or lack thereof (see Barkley, Charles). We will include TV times for those tournaments as well, below.

Our final pick? We say Tiger gets off the major schneid. Here’s where to follow the action:

ONLINE
This is long, but worth it… what follows is the entire ESPN lineup of content from The Open:

The Open Championship on ESPN Digital PlatformsWatchESPN
All Open Championship programming on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3 is also available on computers, smartphones and tablets through WatchESPN and the WatchESPN app, which are accessible to fans who receive their video service from affiliated providers Bright House Networks, Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon FiOS TV.

ESPN.com
News, blogs and columns from ESPN.com national columnist Gene Wojciechowski and senior golf writers Farrell Evans and Bob Harig.
“Digital Drive,” an exclusive ESPN.com program hosted by ESPN the Magazine columnist Rick Reilly, will be produced each day.
“CoverItLive” live chat with Michael Collins throughout the championship.
“Red Light/Green Light” with Collins each day, examining pin placements on selected holes.
The ESPN Golf Cast application, which offers an easy-to-use interface with scoring, “CoverItLive,” video and social media elements.
Best Ball Majors, the latest installment of the ESPN Best Ball Challenge.
Interactive leaderboards and live scores.
Extensive video content, including highlights, analysis, clips from SportsCenter and press conferences.
Photo galleries, podcasts, live chats, SportsNation polling.
Mobile WAP site.
Spanish-language highlights and coverage on ESPNDeportes.com.

ESPN3
ESPN’s live multi-screen sports network will carry ESPN’s telecast of all four rounds of The Open Championship. An additional feed will have live coverage of the 1st & 18th Holes, plus player interviews from the practice range, highlights and features. Trey Wingo and Jim Kelly will share the host role, with analysts Jane Crafter and Kim Thomas and reporter Mark Donaldson. Former Open Championship winner David Duval, who is competing in the event, also will serve as an analyst while not on the course.
ESPN3 also will have a Spanish-language feed with ESPN Deportes golf announcers Francisco Aleman and former LPGA pro Silvia Bertolaccini as well as the International View from the BBC/World coverage and alternating coverage of holes 8, 9 and 10.

ESPN Mobile
Live mobile video simulcasts of ESPN’s Open Championship telecasts on Thursday-Sunday will appear on ESPN Mobile TV. The Best of The Open Championship programs for the first, third and final rounds and Thursday’s The Open Championship Today programs also will be simulcast.
News, highlights and a leaderboard will appear on the ESPN mobile Web and there will be Open Championship Insider content, news and columns, scoring alerts for top players and video shot packs for select golfers.

PGA SHOT TRACKER
No Shot Tracker at the British Open, but it will be online for the True South Classic.

TOP TWITTER FEEDS TO FOLLOWThe Open’s own Twitter feed.Geoff Shackelford — well known golf writer. If you’re not following Geoff you are missing the online boat.Golf Channel — official Golf Channel feed@PGATOUR — official PGA Twitter feed@StephanieWei — great golf writer who is a Twitter fiend. You may also catch her video reporting debut this weekend. Go Stephanie!Doug Ferguson is the lead golf writer for AP. Good Twitter insights that often aren’t part of your wire-service lead.

TOURNAMENT APP
Powered by video mavens at Ooyala, the Open’s App has everything you want in a handheld device app. iPad, iPhone and Android. You will still need the ESPN contract to view live video, though.

ESPN’s annual summer X Games will begin next week on June 28 and run until July 1. Fans and athletes will descend on Los Angles for the events that will start with the X Fest that runs from noon until 7 pm on the opening day.

ESPN will be spreading the 21 hours of live broadcasting, both on-air and online, between a number of its properties: ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC will have the on-air duties with HD handled by ESPN 3D. For online, the games will also be digitally streamed on XGames.com and WatchESPN.com.

Intel buys InterDigital patent portfolio
Intel has reached an agreement to purchase approximately 1,700 patents and applications from wireless technology developer InterDigital for $375 million. The patents primarily are in the areas of 3G, LTE and 802.11 technologies.

Intel said that the move will be a benefit to its development efforts in the mobile segment, and the unspoken part of the deal is that it will no doubt provide ammunition in the ongoing legal spats over patents that are common in the mobile space as well.

Vungle creates App Fund for developersVungle, a startup that seeks to provide a variety of advertising and promotional avenues aside from the traditional pop-up ads has moved to draw more players to its platform. In a very interesting turn the company, which just closed a $2 million venture round last month will use half of that money and create a fund for other developers.

The purpose of the move, according to TechCrunch, is to lure developers to its platform and so gain a boost for its approach to alternative advertising for mobile apps. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

Corruption in Chinese soccer — who knew?The New Yorker, where I often go for my sporting news, had an interesting piece on corruption in the world of Chinese soccer. League executives, players and refs have all been hauled away and imprisoned due to an apparent widespread match fixing epidemic.

It seems that it has been ongoing for several years and that one top referee received $128,000 to fix seven matches. The country, which is seeking to win the rights to host the World Cup in the future, is cracking down to show that it will not tolerate this type of blatant corruption. What impact that will have on FIFA I am not sure.

Apple and Motorola get chance to push claimsThe Apple vs Motorola litigants had the opportunity to speak their piece to US Circuit Court Judge Richard Posner. Apple apparently does not want Motorola to pay royalties but wants it to change its design and also claims that since Motorola’s patent is never used it has no value. Motorola obviously does not agree with either position.

Oracle taking Google lawsuit to next levelOracle has agreed to accept zero damages for the copyright infringement claims that it ‘won’ in its case versus Google over Java technology. Oracle had been seeking big money in the case, claiming that it suffered up to $6 billion in loses.

However this is not the end of the affair. Oracle has said it will appeal its claims in the case once again, including both the patent infringement and whether its APIs can be copyrighted, to the Ninth Circuit appeals court.

Amazon App Store goes International
I have to say that I was surprised when I read that Amazon had not really extended its App Store to other countries and that it was primarily focused on the US market, a short sighted deal since one of its top developers of Android running devices Samsung is so strong internationally.

But anyway that looks to be a thing of the past as the company has now started opening it up and now developers in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain can release games and apps designed specifically for those markets and the company has promised that more nations will be opened up to the joys of apps in the near futire, according to Cnet.

Ever had your bike stolen? SpyBike GPS could track the next one
SpyBike is a product developed by Integrated Trackers that is designed to look like a normal headset cap. It is designed to be activated when the bike is locked and you use a simply arming key and if the bike is moved it starts sending out data via a GPRS message and uses GPS to locate the bike. If GPS fails it has a fall back technology to help locate it.

The device does not come cheap, at $153 as well as a per message charge. The company said that it costs a fraction of a penny per message, but that varies by country. It features a rechargeable battery that can hold a charge of months.
Microsoft is on a roll, but is it a good one?PC Mag is reporting that the company only gave some of its top OEMs a few days notice prior to announcing its Surface tablet platform earlier this week. As a number of them have made a major investment in developing for the underlying operating system, Windows 8, this seems a bit shortsighted.

Then later in the week it talks about its Windows 8 for smartphones and reveals that customers that buy the current family of smartphones will not be supported by Windows 8. I am sure that cheers up Nokia which has made a major investment in promoting Windows Phone technology.

Caught this great interview from CNBC with ESPN’s John Skipper from the cable show going on this week in Boston. Too often these video vignettes are about as illuminating as a sideline reporter asking a coach questions at halftime. But take a minute to watch this one, CNBC’s Julia Boorstin asks some good questions, including one about the new Twitter partnership, and also whether or not ESPN will ever offer WatchESPN as an a la carte option (spoiler: they won’t, but watch to see how emphatically Skipper says no).

Screen shot of ESPNWatch TV ad with the cowboy in the horse trough -- note the disclaimer text.

If you are a paying Comcast cable subscriber, the day of sports freedom has finally arrived — you are now part of the lucky group that is able to use the WatchESPN app to get sports content wherever you want it, on basically any mobile device.

While this does mean that approximately 40 million more Comcast customers can now watch games and other ESPN programming in the horse trough should they so desire, it still isn’t quite the Internet freedom you get from watching events that are served up live to anyone with an Internet connection, like say The Masters or the Super Bowl. But it’s hard to argue with the fact that content must be paid for in one form or another; and since the cable providers pay ESPN a hefty fee to have the channel available for their regular services, it makes sense that ESPN would require the cable-subscription validation in order to consume that same content on other platforms.

Still, I would like to see ESPN offer some kind of separate, Internet-only subscription fee and I expect that someday we may see such a serving. But not anytime soon, because it makes no sense for ESPN to bite the hand that feeds it so well. For now.